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The Kansas City Star ran a very inspiring article on Sun, Sep. 15, 2002 about Rob Peppers, a Topeka weatherman, who was diagnosed at age 29 with PD, and recently underwent DBS surgery. An excerpt is shown below, the full text will be available for a short time at: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascitystar/living/4036643.htm <<After surgery, Topeka weatherman has better control of Parkinson's disease By EDWARD M. EVELD The Kansas City Star TOPEKA - At 29, Rob Peppers heard the name for the curious twitching in his fingers. He had Parkinson's disease. To the television meteorologist in Topeka, the diagnosis was a relief in some ways. After first sensing those involuntary movements, minor as they were, Peppers had imagined a life-ending brain tumor. Instead, with Parkinson's, serious symptoms were maybe five or 10 years away. So the young weather forecaster, well-known to his viewers on CBS-affiliate WIBW, chose to be an optimist. He thought he had some time: Parkinson's had no cure for now, but science could come to the rescue. Last year, more than six years after his diagnosis, science had yet to rescue him. Medication no longer controlled Peppers' trembling hands. When he could walk, he shuffled. His 34-year-old body bent forward like an old man. Perhaps the worst of it were the impossibly painful leg cramps that came on without warning. The cramps left him stranded on the couch in torment. "Dad, can you talk me through this?" he would say on the phone to his father, Larry Peppers, who lives in Salina, Kan. "Stretch your legs, Rob," his dad would reply, knowing that such episodes could last an hour. It was heart-wrenching to be of so little use to his son. The time had come, Rob Peppers decided, to talk seriously about an unusual brain surgery -- deep brain stimulation -- suggested by his doctor at KU Med Center. >> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn